Friday, 27 February 2015

I'm planning to wear my scale mail corset tomorrow for Club Schatten, but despite my vast pile of necklaces, I felt like nothing looked good with it. It has apparently been long enough for me to remember what a pain in the but making scale mail is, because I dug up the left over scales and a pile of rings that were too big for the scales. An hour or two later, behold, my new scale mail necklace!

It's made of two rows of ring mail and three rows of small scales. I quickly found out that stainless steel leaves dark marks on skin when in direct contact, but I'm hoping what ever is causing the stains will come off after some use, or when I wash the necklace.

I'm super pleased with how it came out, I just googled a few pics for inspiration and tried to make something similar with the left overs from the corset. Maybe I'll try to make a bracelet too, it would look so nice with the corset and necklace!

My newest corset is also showing in these pics, but I'll post better pictures later. It's absolutely gorgeous and deserves its own post!

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Look what I made! It's a fan headdress with lace, glitter foam, silk flowers and rhinestones. It was done for a special purpose and I promise to tell you more when the time comes :) I was wanted to give you a little peek because I'm so proud of the headdress!

Photo by Arttu R.

Those golden thingies are Thai dance fingers, little hollow metal tubes tapered on one end that fit on your fingers. I thought they brought the right kind of magic to the photo! I'm wearing a Chinese eBay dress and a lovely PVC waist cincher by Artifice clothing. I tried to do the make up in a Chinese opera make up style, but it doesn't really look anything like it when done in purple instead of the usual red. Oh well! It still works well with the purple of the headdress. I think.

Monday, 23 February 2015

I've been playing with my new Sugarpill shadows, they are just so sparkly and pretty! Here's a look done with Charmy and Pastelle. Pastelle on the lid, Charmy in the crease and on lower lid. I blended out the edges of Charmy with Pastelle too. A light, simple and very easy to wear look!

Sunday, 22 February 2015

A friend had a birthday party yesterday with a comic book theme. I was running late on planning my outfit, but decided that Death from Gaiman's Sandman would be an easy choice. I still kinda wanted to wear my Victorian skirt, so I went for a Victorian version. At least Dream changes his form to fit the culture he's in, so I thought Death can probably do that too. Delirium was at the party too ;P

A big thanks to Nina for the pictures!

I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt underneath a satin top with a high collar, and there's a corset under it all. I tried a tulle petticoat under the skirt and my bustle on top of the tulle, it seemed to work perfectly! The tulle made the skirt nice and full and kept me from stepping on the hem. My other half made the ankh from Fimo about an hour before the party started ;D He did a great job on it, it's the right size and the painted finish is gorgeous!

My version of Death is very keen on red wine ;P

Ikea does the best wine glasses! We got these a while ago and all other wine glasses
have just been gathering dust in the cupboard ever since.

I should have done Death's signature eyeliner squiggle a bit larger, now it gets lost in the
smoky eye a bit.

We had an afterparty at a local nightclub, the locals seemed restless when suddenly a pack of goths in weird costumes took over the dance floor to shake booty to eighties hits! Twerking gets a whole new meaning when you are wearing a bustle ;D

A while later I was at a flea market and came across a white faux fur jacket. I remembered Leena's lovely white outfit and decided to replicate it, so a pair on second hand jeans and a white top later I gave it a go! Thank you so much Leena for putting together such an inspiring outfit, and helping my snow queen find footwear :)

I think Leena's jacket is prettier because it's shorter! I might need to customize mine. I've been recently adding coloured items to my wardrobe, because black is quite tricky in photos. Lots of light is needed to keep a loose, fully black outfit from becoming a black blob on camera ;D Other shades are way easier to work with.

Friday, 20 February 2015

When I was shopping for Sugarpill's new shades, I didn't look too closely but just grabbed anything that looked interesting. Penelope was a really different type than what I expected. I thought it would be a coppery dark brown, but when it arrived and I tried it, it behaved like loose glitter when applied on top of regular primer.

In the jar it's a semi loose shadow and super duper metallic. On regular primer it really doesn't perform too well and wants to scatter everywhere. So sticky primer it is! I dug up my Pixie Epoxy by Fyrinnaes, which is my favourite sticky primer. It's a bit thick and you can feel it on your lids, but it makes sparkly shadows look absolutely awesome. I wanted to see what it could do with Penelope and I was not disappointed!

In my pictures Penelope is a bit more orange than in natural light. It's a true, metallic copper, not glitter, not shimmer, but copper. It doesn't have a mica base like most shadows, which makes it all about the metallic finish. A gorgeous shade and very steampunk!

I'm wearing Penelope on top of Pixie Epoxy with a touch of Sugarpill Bullerproof (matte black) in the crease and on lower lid. I lined part of the lower lid with black gel liner, applied mascara and a pair of Red Cherry false lashes.

I'm not sure what to pair Penelope with, do you have any suggestions? The coppery browns I like might look very dull next to it. The complimenting colour to orange would be a deep, dark blue, but I'm bad at using blues, they make my eyes look a bit dull.

Thursday, 19 February 2015

I've been planning an outdoors photoshoot with my scale mail corset. This means trying out different garments that might work with it so that I can have the perfect combination when the shoot actually happens. Bringing a bunch of stuff that in the end does not work together is only a pain in the behind. Or shoulders, as I'll be lugging all the stuff around in huge Ikea bags.

I'm not absolutely sure about the skirt. It's nice on its own (well as the pair, there's a tulle skirt underneath) but the corset comes so low on the hips that it makes me look short when the skirt puffs out only on the hips, not at the waist. Oh well, the skirt will still work great with any top that can be worn with a corset underneath and either can be tucked under the skirt or flares out at the waist. A mermaid skirt would work better with the corset, but I only have a lace mermaid skirt in my closet, it's too busy.

But I do love the cloak! I spent ages pondering if I should sew one my self or order one, and in which colour combination. This one is from a British eBay seller and was available in many colours. In the end I decided to get an all red one (you got to choose the lining and the outside colour) so it would go well with my red and black things. And if it was nice, I planned to get something in the shades I usually use (purple, teal, black) to go with the rest of my wardrobe, if it seems to be useful.

The cloak feels a bit cheap, but then again it was only something around 30 euros, so I could not have even bought the fabric for one with that amount. It's a very decent 30 euro cloak, I say! And looks better in photos than IRL, which is a plus because I intended it for photos. The final nail was the skirt, which I found at a thrift store for 7 euros. My usual colours would not have worked with the moss green, so a red cloak it was!

The next hurdle was to try out wigs. I got a few recently, so I have more natural shades to choose from. I thought the red one would be interesting, because I couldn't say if it would work with the bright red cloak. In the photos it's quite nice, but holy hell what an uncomfortable wig it is! It's a bit small so it digs into my forehead and because it has no bangs, the hair is always getting in my face. And it wants to tangle and get stuck on earrings, necklaces and scale mail.

N. Finsternis suggested on the last post I did on the scale mail that a sleeve I had worn earlier would work well with it. I thought it was a great idea, so here's the sleeve with the corset! I think it gives a nice steampunk vibe to the outfit :)

What do you think of the skirt with the corset? I'm thinking of scouring the flea markets for a mermaid skirt or trying an overskirt on top of the corset, maybe something that ties in the front with ribbon so it wouldn't hide much of the corset.

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

One of the new Sugarpill shadows, Countess, is a gorgeous burgundy shade. Burgundy is sometimes tricky to wear, as it can make you look weepy or sick, but some shades work well. Countess is luckily one of them!

Here I'm wearing Countess on top of Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy with only mascara and gel liner added. These super sparkly shadows really need a sticky base to shine, but you can wear them as more muted colours with a normal base. Here the edges of Countess are blended on top of Urban Decay Primer Potion only.

Full face shot, I paired Countess with Mac Nightmoth lip liner, they seem to match!

Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Whew what a busy week! I've been struggling with my thesis and it's busy at the office, plus I've acquired a plethora of extra projects, everything from flea market organizing to writing for a magazine. And then there's the upcoming documentary film about my work and dreams of a armoured cosplay costume...

I took some time out of my busy schedule to go to a meet organized by the lovely Ravenoir from Evil Roots. A bunch of alternative bloggers met, had a few beers and exchanged gifts. I got chocolate and the cutest little bat hair-clips ever!

Here's a few pictures but the other participants, I didn't take my camera with me because I'm a scatterbrain.

Friday, 13 February 2015

Sugarpill recently came out with some new shades and I stayed up late to place an order as soon as they were released. The package arrived yesterday and I just love each and every shade! Here are swatches and pictures of the shadows in jars.

Pastelle, Strangeling, Penelope, Countess and Charmy

I'll go over each shade briefly. Most are permanent additions to the catalogue, but one is a limited edition shade. The swatches are done over Urban Decay Primer Potion.

Pastelle in the jar.

Pastelle

The only limited edition shade of the bunch, Pastelle, is a pale pastel pink with a load of gold sparkles. It's light and easy to use for many looks. The sparkle fades a bit when blended. Sticky base works best for Pastelle, because the microglitter has the tendency to get everywhere.

Charmy in the jar.

Charmy

A medium peach shade with golden shimmer. Charmy is quite red based, not pastel and while it is bright, it's not neon-bright. Works well for defining the crease with Pastelle on the lid.

Strengeling in the jar.

Strangeling

Strangeling is replacing Hysteric, which is discontinued (see my Hysteric swatch here!) Compared to Hysteric, Strangeling is warmer and has more red microglitter in it. A very usable medium purple that will surely see lots of use in my collection!

Countess in the jar.

Countess

Countess is a metallic wine red. In the jar it has lots of blue glitter, but that hardly shows up on skin. Some reds make you look ill, but on my skin Countess work really well. Works with Charmy especially well.

Penelope in the jar.

Penelope

Penelope sure is an odd one! In the jar it's in a semi loose form. When used over regular primer, it acts like a glitter and goes on very sheer. On a sticky base it's a gorgeous, very shiny copper. Most Sugarpill shadows list mica as their first ingredient, but these metallic shades (Grand Tiara, Goldilux and Penelope) have it lower in the inci list which explains the sheerness. Penelope is a gorgeous true copper, perfect for steampunk make-up looks! It cannot be used on regular primer as a crease shade, unless you apply a dark shadow first and Penelope on top. It's best used on its own over a sticky base, or in the same way you would use glitter to enhance a loot.